Signature Cloud Support Benefit Overview

Summary

Signature Cloud Support (SCS) is available for gold and silver partners with qualifying competencies. Please share this guide with your teams that contact Microsoft for support and use it to help answer questions about your benefits and how to ensure you are set up properly.

More Information

Signature Cloud Support is an exclusive partner technical benefit that provides qualified cloud competency partners with an elevated level of technical support for Microsoft cloud products. The Signature Cloud Support benefit provides partners with access to technical support engineers who work extensively with partners, have extensive product-specific knowledge, and are accountable for driving cases to resolution from start to finish.

Signature Cloud Support for Office 365 handles technical support scenarios surrounding Office 365. Issues around billing, presales, help and how-to, and password resets or questions about other products, such as CRM Online, Windows Intune, Enterprise Mobility, and Microsoft Azure, are handled by other teams. When you submit a service request, it will be routed to the responsible team.

For all presales, deployment preparation, or advisory (help and how-to) questions, visit the Support tab on the Microsoft Partner Network portal. Under My support benefits and activities, you can request a callback from a partner technical consultant (PTC). You can also see all of your available Microsoft Partner Network support benefits here.

Support for billing and subscription management issues are covered with the Azure subscription at no additional cost; an Azure Support plan is not required to receive support for these types of issues.

Product support for Microsoft Azure, also known as “Break-fix”, is available through the Signature Cloud Support benefit. "Break-fix" is an industry term that refers to "the work involved in supporting a technology when it fails in the normal course of its function, which requires intervention by a support organization to be restored to working order."

The technical product support boundaries are limited to support incidents created through online submission, regarding an Azure subscription (subscription ID) associated to the user account used to access the Azure Management portal (service administrator or co-administrator).

Incidents related to an Azure subscription in which the current signed-in user is not a service administrator or co-administrator of the subscription are out-of-scope (on-behalf of scenarios). Support incidents related to advisory, presales or partner benefits support are also considered out-of-scope and will be redirected to the appropriate partner channels.

Partners that are eligible for Signature Cloud Support for Azure can still receive Azure break-fix support for their customer's Azure subscription, by either:

Attempting to reproduce the customer’s issue on that partner’s subscription

Requesting best effort support, as long as it does not require the support engineer to access any Azure subscription in which the partner is not a service administrator or co-administrator

Yes. In order to successfully submit an incident for Microsoft Azure, the following two prerequisites must be met:

You must have a Microsoft Azure subscription to submit a support request. If submitting an incident on behalf of a customer, the account logged in to the Azure Portal must either be the Cloud Solution Provider Partner of Record, have “administrative privileges” (service administrator or co-administrator), or have ‘write permissions’ (owner/contributor) on the customer’s Microsoft Azure subscription.

You need an access ID and a contract ID to add the new Signature support option (thereafter, it will be associated to your sign-in information for future requests). The access ID and contract ID are sent to the primary program contact when the benefit is activated. Signature Cloud Support has its own special access ID and contract ID; it is not the same as the Microsoft Partner Network product support benefits.

Support for billing and subscription management issues is covered with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscription at no additional cost; a CRM Online Support plan is not required to receive support for these types of issues.

Related products within the CRM Online Enterprise or Professional offers, such as Microsoft Social Listening, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, or Parature, from Microsoft, are not currently included in Signature Cloud Support.

Product support for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, also known as “Break-fix”, is available through the Signature Cloud Support benefit. "Break-fix" is an industry term that refers to "the work involved in supporting a technology when it fails in the normal course of its function, which requires intervention by a support organization to be restored to working order." Questions or issues pertaining to non-technical scenarios (for example, help/how to, billing) and those for other services (for example, Microsoft Social Listening, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, or Parature, from Microsoft) will be routed to the responsible teams for resolution. Non-break-fix requests can be submitted by going to http://aka.ms/contactsupport.

The technical product support boundaries are limited to support incidents created through online submission regarding a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscription associated to the user account used to access the Microsoft Online Services Portal (administrator).

Any incidents related to a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online subscription in which the current logged-in user is not an administrator/co-administrator or has not been granted delegated administrator privileges (DAP) to the subscription are out-of-scope (on-behalf of scenarios). Support incidents related to advisory, presales or partner benefits support are also considered out-of-scope for “Break-fix” and will be redirected to the appropriate partner channels.

Partners that are eligible for Signature Cloud Support for Dynamics CRM Online can still receive break-fix support for their customer's CRM Online subscription, by either:

Attempting to reproduce the customer’s issue on that partner’s subscription

Requesting best effort support, as long as it doesn’t require the support engineer to access any Dynamics CRM Online Subscription in which the partner individual is not an administrator

This link will take you to the Office 365 portal, which will direct you to the Office 365 sign in page (if you are not already signed in). Enter your partner login ID and password.

Once you have signed in, click the icon in the left hand corner of the home page. This will display the menu of options to choose from. The partner option will display if you are a partner with delegated admin privileges.

To submit an incident on behalf of your customer:

Click on the partner option and you will be directed to the Partner Admin Center where you will see a list of all your customers for which you have delegated admin privileges (DAP).

Select the customer, then click on Service Requests.

Verify the name of the customer and then click the addition (+) symbol to add your service request.

Under Create a service request, select the topic that most closely matches your issue.

Identify the issue by selecting the Feature and Symptom from the dropdown lists.

Describe your issue by completing the Issue summary and Issue details fields. Note: These fields will automatically appear after the Feature and Symptom fields have been completed. Click Next.

If there are suggested resolutions for your issue, review them by selecting the appropriate link. If none of the suggestions resolve your issue, click Yes, continue.

If there are no suggested resolutions for your issue, click Yes, continue. Note: There are additional options listed if at any time you would like to go back and modify your entry or if you would like to cancel your request.

Complete the Is your service unavailable, How many users are affected, and Enter an email address fields. If you have additional documentation to provide, click Attach a file. Then click Next.

Review and confirm that the information auto-populated on the screen. Click Submit ticket.

After the submission has been received, you will receive a confirmation message. Note the Service Request reference number in the service request list. And, note the customer name in the upper right corner to ensure that the case has been submitted.

To submit an incident on your own behalf (your own subscription):

Click on the Admin of the Office 365 Administration home page.

In the Office 365 Admin Center on the left side of your screen, scroll down to the Support option and click on Service Requests.

Click the addition (+) symbol to add your service request.

Under Create a service request, select the topic that most closely matches your issue.

Identify the issue by selecting the Feature and Symptom from the dropdown lists. Describe your issue by completing the Issue summary and Issue details fields (these fields will appear once the Feature and Symptom fields have been completed). Click Next.

If there are suggested resolutions for your issue, review them by selecting the appropriate link. If none of the suggestions resolve your issue, click Yes, continue. Note: There are additional options listed if at any time you would like to go back and modify your entry, or if you would like to cancel your request.

If there are no suggested resolutions for your issue, click Yes, continue.

Complete the Is your service unavailable, How many users are affected, and Enter an email address fields. If you have additional documentation to provide, click Attach a file. Then click Next.

Review and confirm that the information auto-populated on the screen. Click Submit ticket.

After the submission has been completed, you will receive a confirmation message. Note the Service Request reference number in the service request list.

On the Select a contract page, select the professional support contract associated with your Signature Cloud Support benefit. If a professional support contract is not available, then add one by providing your access ID and contract ID associated with your Signature Cloud Support benefit. After adding a new professional support contract, select the contract and then click Continue.

On the Your contact information page, validate that a valid Telephone number, Email address, and Time zone are provided, then click Continue.

On the Problem Details page, fill out the entire form, upload any relevant files, and then click Submit.

After the submission has been received you will receive a confirmation message and an email confirmation will be sent to your preferred email address.

Now that I’ve opened my service request, when will I get a callback? Can I call in to speak to an engineer directly?We will determine the severity of your issue and then reach out to you accordingly. Below is a table with examples of how we determine severity, and associated response times.

For Severity A cases, you will be transferred directly to an engineer when you call the Regional Service Center or the Office 365 support line. For Severity B and C issues, your case will be dispatched to the support team.

Severity

Description

Initial response goal

Ongoing communication goal

Examples

Severity A Critical

One or more services are inaccessible or cannot be used. Production, operations, or deployment deadlines are severely affected, or there will be a severe impact on production or profitability. Multiple users or services are affected.

1 hour

Update to partner every 2 hours; partner updates Microsoft every 2 hours until there is resolution

The service can be used, but isn’t functioning properly. The situation has moderate business impact and can be dealt with during business hours. A single user, customer, or service is partially affected.

The situation has minimal business impact. The issue is important, but does not have a significant current service or productivity impact for the customer. A single user is experiencing partial disruption, but an acceptable workaround exists.

4 hours

Update to partner every 3 business days

User can’t access email by using Outlook, but can access email by using Outlook Web App.

If you need assistance on an Office 365 technical support service request that is currently with the Partner Support team, here’s what you can do:

First, try contacting your support engineer and their backup via email. You may optionally contact Microsoft by phone.

If you do not receive a response from your support engineer, forward the latest email about the case to the support engineer’s manager listed in his email signature.

If none of the above work and your case is Severity A, call support and someone will transfer you to the next available support engineer.

Note: For billing issues, call the Regional Service Center for an update. If you cannot reach a resolution, use CPSFeedback@microsoft.com for escalation.

My customer opened a service request and there hasn’t been much progress. Can you help?Absolutely. If your customer has a case open with the frontline teams, the customer can contact the support engineer’s manager listed in his email signature if no progress has been made on the case.

If you need assistance on a technical support service request that is currently with the Partner Support team, here’s what you can do:

First, try contacting your support engineer and their backup via email. You may optionally contact Microsoft by phone.

If you do not receive a response from your support engineer, forward the latest email about the case to the support engineer’s manager listed in his email signature.

If none of the above work and your case is Severity A, call support and someone will transfer you to the next available support engineer.

Note: For billing issues, call the Regional Service Center for an update.

My customer opened a service request and there hasn’t been much progress. Can you help?Absolutely. If your customer has a case open with the frontline teams, the customer can contact the support engineer’s manager listed in his email signature if no progress has been made on the case.

Contact Microsoft Support

Need help from Microsoft Support? Get support from Microsoft’s own experts. They can help with partner program issues, presales assistance, issues with Microsoft products, billing questions, and more. Start here to view your contact options.

Note: Using the Contact Microsoft Support button requires you to login into the MPN site using a valid Microsoft Partner Network login. If you do not have a valid Microsoft Partner Network login or are having problems logging in to MPN, you can get more information or assistance from the ﻿﻿﻿﻿MPN Support site.﻿ ﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿